Something’s going on with healthtech startups recently. And since we’ve been seeing some fundraises pop up in the news, here’s a summary of what’s been on the news lately. 

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💸 DotBio raises $$$

Check out DotBio, a Singapore-based pharmaceutical company that’s building next-generation antibody therapies. 

• Founded in 2018, they just raised a $5.6M Pre-Series A!
• The investors: Proxima Ventures, Gaorong Capital, and the AIM-HI Accelerator Fund.

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🏥 How they do it

Think of modules. They prefabricate (aka pre-build) antibody modules—each with specific functions like tumor targeting, immune activation, or something else. 

Then, they combine them on-demand to create multi-functional antibodies.

• So much faster! In just months, they can generate bi- and tri-specific antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), and intracellular antibodies.
• Basically, the antibody modules are building blocks to assemble more complex antibodies.

What it means? Thanks to this module system, they can create and test the right complex antibodies to select the best candidate quicker than ever.

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👩‍🔬 What’s next? 

They’ll start pre-clinical studies in areas like animal efficacy, chemical, manufacturing, and controls to validate therapeutic candidates before future clinical development.

They’ll also scale up and automate their proprietary DotBody platform to enable quicker screening of thousands of multi-functional antibody prototypes, so they can conduct research on new drugs and therapies for cancer treatment.

• Oh, and they’ll also speed up their development of multi-functional antibodies. These have the potential to treat a wide range of cancers and improve quality of life!

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🚀 Extra Scoop

Also, there’s a VC firm widening their healthtech portfolio! It’s Gobi Partners, with an aggregate investment of around $11.8M across 12 startups.

• They’re all in what they call China’s Greater Bay Area (GBA) and SEA, also called “Greater Bay ASEAN”.

Gobi’s investments in SEA’s healthtech space include ORA, HD, and Maria Health.